Staff of Enterprise, Mainstreet, Keystone Banks seek to stop new owners from taking over

With Heritage Bank and Skye Bank having emerged successful bidders and almost ready to take over nationalized banks, Enterprise and Mainstreet banks, employees of the  nationalized banks including the third, Keytone, have gone to court to stop the process.

The employees, two from each of the affected banks, are asking the Federal High Court in Lagos to cancel the banks’ transfer to news owners.

The plaintiff in the suit claim that Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) did not involve them in the decision to sell the banks as well as the bidding process, an act they called a breach of the law and in defiance to the CBN guidelines.

According to a Leadership newspaper report, the institutors of the suit filed through their counsel, Fred Agbaje, are Ogunremi Francis and Aneke Emmanuel for Mainstreet Bank staff; Abimbola Alabi and Aderonke Aworemi for Keystone Bank staff; and Victor Nwankwo and Isokpan Efe-Martins for Enterprise Bank staff.

Also joined as seventh plaintiff are the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and other Financial Institutions.

The first to sixth defendants are AMCON, the three banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Security Exchange Commission.